Thursday: Chop = Slow Splits but useful training

5:00 – up and drive to Prague.  Covered the 200km in 2 hours roughly. Good. At km 87 a standing truck in the left lane. Managed to switch lane smoothly but if there would have been a car next to me, I would have had to break hard, and you never know if the guy behind you isn’t making a phone call or texting, or sipping a coffee. Not pleasant.

Meetings in Prague. Left around 3pm. Made it to the rowing club at 7pm. Lots of traffic jams. Tired.

Windy. Chop.

The plan: 3x(5×30″)/8min rest. (1) 30″ 34spm / 30″ rest. (2) 30″ 36spm / 45″ rest. (3) 30″ 38spm / 60″ rest.

Here’s the summary. In the remarks column I put what CrewNerd told me, because at these short intervals it differs slightly from the spreadsheet analysis.

| Dist_ | Pace__ | _SPM | avg HR | max HR | DPS | Remarks
| 01969 | 02:57.7 | 19.0 | 144 | 162 | 08.9 | WU
| 00139 | 01:48.0 | 32.9 | 140 | 169 | 08.5 | 34spm #1 (31.9 / 1:48.5)
| 00108 | 02:23.3 | 21.4 | 170 | 172 | 09.8 | rest
| 00134 | 01:44.3 | 33.1 | 173 | 177 | 08.7 | 34 spm #2 (33.9 / 1:43.8)
| 00110 | 02:21.0 | 21.2 | 177 | 179 | 10.0 | rest
| 00130 | 01:51.4 | 32.7 | 176 | 179 | 08.2 | 34spm #3 (33.9 / 1:47.5)
| 00103 | 02:30.2 | 21.4 | 177 | 180 | 09.3 | rest
| 00130 | 01:55.3 | 33.3 | 175 | 179 | 07.8 | 34spm #4 (33.9 / 1:50.7)
| 00102 | 02:31.8 | 21.3 | 176 | 179 | 09.3 | rest
| 00127 | 01:54.3 | 32.2 | 175 | 178 | 08.1 | 34spm #5 (32.0 / 1:52.9)
| 01363 | 02:56.1 | 18.9 | 144 | 178 | 09.0 | rest 8min
| 00133 | 01:52.9 | 33.7 | 165 | 175 | 07.9 | 36spm #1 (33.9 / 1:52.1)
| 00151 | 02:32.3 | 22.2 | 174 | 178 | 08.9 | rest
| 00126 | 01:54.9 | 34.4 | 175 | 181 | 07.6 | 36spm #2 (33.9 / 1:53.2)
| 00126 | 03:02.1 | 20.7 | 177 | 181 | 08.0 | rest
| 00129 | 01:56.7 | 34.4 | 177 | 180 | 07.5 | 36spm #3 (33.9 / 1:56.4)
| 00134 | 02:47.4 | 20.5 | 177 | 181 | 08.8 | rest
| 00133 | 01:52.5 | 34.7 | 176 | 180 | 07.7 | 36spm #4 (35.9 / 1:52.3)
| 00122 | 03:09.2 | 19.1 | 177 | 182 | 08.3 | rest
| 00125 | 01:55.7 | 35.0 | 176 | 180 | 07.4 | 36spm #5 (33.9 / 1:58.9)
| 01301 | 03:04.0 | 19.4 | 150 | 181 | 08.4 | 8 min rest
| 00149 | 01:44.3 | 35.5 | 169 | 176 | 08.1 | 38spm #1 (35.9 / 1:43.1)
| 00203 | 02:27.5 | 22.0 | 174 | 177 | 09.2 | rest
| 00137 | 01:49.4 | 35.3 | 175 | 179 | 07.8 | 38spm #2 (35.9 / 1:49.4)
| 00185 | 02:42.4 | 20.5 | 174 | 180 | 09.0 | rest
| 00137 | 01:49.8 | 35.3 | 174 | 179 | 07.7 | 38spm #3 (35.9 /1:49.0)
| 00178 | 02:48.1 | 20.3 | 174 | 179 | 08.8 | rest
| 00124 | 02:01.3 | 34.5 | 172 | 178 | 07.2 | 38spm #4 ( (35.9 / 1:49.8)
| 00181 | 02:48.4 | 19.6 | 173 | 179 | 09.1 | rest
| 00131 | 01:50.3 | 36.7 | 173 | 179 | 07.4 | 38spm #5 (37.9 / 1:49.0)
| 00907 | 03:41.7 | 19.4 | 148 | 179 | 07.0 | CD


First set of 5×30″ was done with tailwind and increasing chop. Second set of 5×30″ in headwind and decreasing chop. Final set in tailwind and increasing chop.

What do I mean by that?

The north end of the lake was wind from the north and medium chop. The south end was wind from the same direction, but heavy chop. So in the first set, as the intervals progressed I entered more difficult water to row. I turned with about 2 minutes rest to go, and started doing the 36spm intervals into headwind. Last set was again rowed with tailwind.

Chop doesn’t speed you up. It was good exercise though to row in the rough at high rates. I imagined an end sprint situation at next week’s Masters Nationals, where there can be the same difficult conditions.

Related to my post of yesterday, I have been thinking a bit about effects which could explain why a “pull on the recovery” combined with a prominent and fast catch help the boat speeds. One hypothesis is about drag and boundary layers, combined with the rocking or tilting of the boat … which also could explain slowing down in choppy conditions, as I saw waves going over the deck regularly. Just a hypothesis for now. Perhaps the slowing down in choppy conditions is just due to balance and precision difficulties …